A Texas inmate who strangled and suffocated a pastor inside his own church years ago revealed at the brink of his execution that he had ‘found peace’ and was ‘ready to go home.’.....CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING>>>.....CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING>>>
Steven Lawayne Nelson was executed by lethal injection with his wife and dog looking on before his death.
37-year-old Nelson said: ‘let’s ride, Warden’ before killer chemicals were pumped into his veins, and was pronounced dead at 6.50 pm CST in Huntsville, Texas on Wednesday night.
The sequence of events unfolded after Nelson refused to take a walk into the chamber in what has been deemed a ‘non-violent protest.’
Nelson’s death was the second execution in the United States in 2025.
In 2011, Nelson had his pastor, Rev. Clint Dobson beaten, strangled and suffocated inside the NorthPointe Baptist Church in Arlington.
The pastor’s secretary Judy Elliott was also heavily beaten yet managed to survive the attack.
Although reports suggested he protested entering the chamber, it appeared Nelson was at peace and accepted his fate in the final moments of his life.
He kept on telling his new wife that he loved her and was thankful for her support as she watched on through the window.
His wife, Helene Noa Dubois, held a white dog up the window as was allowed to bring it into the witness area.
Nelson then said: ‘Give Monkey a hug for me.’
‘I’m not scared, it’s cold s**t here. But I’m at peace, I’m ready to be at home.’ ‘Let’s ride, Warden.’
He requested for the presence of his spiritual advisor and death penalty opponent, Jeff Hood, to be in the execution chamber with him ‘to pray over me and give me last rites.’ Hood said to USAToday that Nelson ‘fought to the end.’
‘It took them forever to declare that he had passed,’ Hood said after the execution. ‘He fought to the very end.’
A report from AP stated that he told Dubois ‘Let me go to sleep’ as the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital was administered.
The drug began to take effect as he said the word ‘love,’ gasped twice and seemingly tried to try to hold his breath.
For a few seconds, his head, shoulders and arms shook before all movement stopped. 24 minutes later, he was then pronounced dead.
The now-dead inmate was not entitled to a final ‘death row’ meal under a unique Texas law which was abolished in 2011.
In his time in prison, Nelson always maintained his innocence and claimed he acted as a lookout and robbed the 28-year-old pastor while blaming his death on two accomplices.
There were many bids to avoid the death penalty, yet the recent of which occurred just several hours ago had failed.
Across the United States, death row inmates are often given the chance to pick a ‘last meal’ in which they can generally request comfort foods.
However, it is no longer available in Texas as per reports after Lawrence Russell Brewer placed an order for a triple meat bacon cheeseburger, meat lovers pizza, three fajitas, a pound of barbecue, two chicken fried steaks, a pint of ice cream and a peanut butter fudge slab with crushed peanuts ahead of his execution. When it was finally afforded him, he then chose not to consume any of it.
His actions left lawmakers displeased and the ‘death row meal’ has been barred since then.
Now, all inmates facing execution are offered the same food as any other prisoner.
Nelson recently married while on death row, and his new wife, Dubois, connected with him in 2020 through an inmate letter-writing program.
‘We started first as friends and as the years progressed the love and the feelings progressed more and we got married on December 4,’ he said.
Nelson said he was afraid to leave his wife alone and he had left the choice up to her if she wanted to attend and witness his death.
The Texas inmate added that it would be his first contact with a person in more than a decade, and though his death comes as a tragedy to his wife, she will find solace in knowing he found peace and believes he’s on his way home.